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Obamas Budgetary Dance With The Devil
by Imara Jones, Friday, April 5 2013, 1:51 PM EST
President Obama may be on a new collision course with those that put him in office. Today’s headline in the New York Times shows why. “Obama Budget to Include Cuts to Programs in Hopes of Deal,” flashed the world’s busiest news site. According to the Times, Obama is set to offer up close to a trillion dollars in new cuts to domestic programs ranging in areas from health to unemployment insurance.
This latest round of reductions would fall hardest on those hit by the recession and demand very little from the few who’ve never had it better. As such, the president would continue an unfortunate pattern on economics of yielding to the power plays of Republicans against the interests of the vast majority of Americans.
But beyond this, the proposal includes two curveballs which might aggravate his base even more.
The first is that the proposal includes a change to Social Security. What’s confusing about any mention of Social Security is that the program is solvent for another generation—20 years—without any changes. Obama’s reported social security move would reduce payments to seniors by changing the way that inflation is calculated. Basically it would mean that seniors would receive smaller and smaller checks over time. But Social Security doesn’t need these cuts. For the 10-year time horizon of Obama’s budget, the program is just fine.
